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Not much to report this month. My M-protein level—a proxy for the level of cancerous plasma cells in my bone marrow—is down from 0.48 in February to 0.43 in March. That’s not a big drop, but it’s a drop, and anything moving in the right direction is good news. Apparently the evil dex is reluctantly doing its job.

FWIW, there are other markers besides M-protein that I haven’t been sharing because they’re all basically OK and haven’t changed much. For example, we routinely measure something call Kappa light chains, and it’s been at a nice low level ever since the first round of chemotherapy. Ditto for my IgG immunoglobulin levels. (There are three types of immunoglobulins corresponding to three different types of multiple myeloma. I have the G version.) This is all good news. If we can just get the basic level of cancerous cells down close to zero, I’ll be in pretty good shape. In fact, it’s even possible that the slow response of the M-protein level is a positive thing, since it would be expected if I have a very slow-moving version of multiple myeloma. That’s just speculation at this point since there’s no way of knowing, but it fits the evidence so far.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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